At the pleasure

The meaning of 'pleasure' is "happy satisfaction," but in a political context its usage can be controversial.

The English Language, William Safire

WORD: Pleasure is a beautiful word. Thats in the middle, pronounced like the z in azure, a word favoured by lyric poets, gives a little thrill to the mouth.

The meaning in the noun alone - "happy satisfaction or enjoyment; delight, gratification" - runs 26 printed-out pages in the Oxford English Dictionary Online, including "the indulgence of physical, especially sexual, desires or appetites", specifically to take one's pleasure, a lazily elegant way of saying "to have sexual intercourse."

How come, then, this word is so often invoked by high government officials whose jobs are in jeopardy? "As the flap over the firing of several US attorneys unfolds," writes Ethan Marin at yale. edu (he may be a distinguished professor, a legally blonde freshman or a janitor - it's hard to tell from e-mail addresses), "one phrase has been used repeatedly to defend the conduct of the White House: the attorneys serve at the pleasure of the President.

It seems to ascribe a royal air to the President, as though, if it contributed to his pleasure, an attorney or two might be beheaded. What is the origin of this phrase?"

The origin is the Latin durante bene placito regis (as Jimmy Durante used to say, "Everybody wants ta get inna de act"), which translates as "during the pleasure of the king". This did not mean "while the king was having fun"; it meant that nobody could hold an official position against his will.

Within a thousand years, that notion of supreme royal executive power - in Old French, le roi le veut, "the king wills it" - became controversial. In 1215, the hereditary nobles of England forced King John to sign the Magna Carta, asserting their right to meet without "royal pleasure", though commoners serving "at the pleasure of the King" and "on good behaviour" could be dismissed at any time.

James Oldham, a law professor, and Laura Bedard, a librarian, both at Georgetown University, said the earliest use they could find in English of the king's pleasure, meaning "assent", was in 1275: "the phrase at the king's pleasure pops up everywhere throughout the 13th through 19th centuries and is still in use today, though usually as a mere formality or part of a rite", like the opening and closing of Parliament.

Then came the 1701 Act of Settlement, settling the succession to the throne and changing the service of judges from "during the pleasure of the king" to "during good behaviour", thereby curtailing regal power.

In the US in 1789, in the first Congress' first major debate about the creation of Cabinet departments, the argument was over whether and which executive officers should serve at the President's pleasure. The House member arguing that the Constitution required tenure of Cabinet officers to be at the President's pleasure was James Madison.

He prevailed, but the word pleasure never made it into the Constitution; in Article III, federal judges serve not at pleasure but - taking a leaf from the Brits - "during good behaviour." At pleasure first appeared in the Judiciary Act of 1789 about US marshals.

Painful fights over at pleasure have ensued. President Andrew Johnson, Lincoln's successor, was impeached by the House for daring to fire Secretary of War Edwin Stanton, who had been given tenure in his job by an Act of Congress. Johnson's defence, arguing that such an Act was unconstitutional, squeaked him through: the President was acquitted in the Senate.

A generation later Congress repealed that Act, permitting Presidents to bounce Cabinet members for no reason. On the power of the President to remove federal officials below Cabinet rank, however, there have been three significant Supreme Court decisions in the 20th century: Congress won two of those power struggles.

We hear at pleasure from Cabinet members whenever they come under fire, with reporters demanding to know if they intend to resign. At a press conference two months ago, Attorney General Alberto Gonzales said, "The Attorney General, and all political appointees, such as US attorneys, serve at the pleasure of the President of the United States."

It seems that the pleasure principle could use some updating in our political discourse.

The political meaning of pleasure is far from "delight" and even further, one hopes, from sexual gratification.

It means "control", which will always be shifting and disputable in a flexible, balance-of-power system. In future commissions and laws, we should strike pleasure and insert "sole authority."

Archaisms are fine reminders of the lexical past but not when they undermine semantic reality.

New York Times Service